Peripheral canal at a glance

The debate over the peripheral canal was one of the most colorful in Stockton's history. Some tidbits you might not have known:

» Then-state Sen. John Garamendi once referred to the canal as the "Vampire Ditch." "The legendary Count Dracula destroyed humans by sucking their blood until the victims expired," Garamendi said. "The proposed peripheral canal would do the same - drain the lifeblood of the Delta as this largest of estuaries in North and South America painfully expires."

» In 1964, San Joaquin County's water consultant, William Gianelli, warned locals that if the government decided the canal would be built, "it is going to be built despite any objections we may raise." He must have been referring to the county, not himself, because Gianelli was later appointed chief of the pro-canal Department of Water Resources under Gov. Ronald Reagan.

» A 1964 Record article asserted that construction of the canal "probably would not be started before 1968." That turned out to be an excellent bet.

» Delta counties complained in the 1960s that they had been left out of the decision-making process, which they are still saying today. By the early 1980s San Joaquin County had approved at least a dozen resolutions opposing the canal unless assurances could be made that the Delta would be protected.

» The Stockton City Council, on the other hand, actually voted to support the canal for a brief period of time in the 1970s, in part because the city believed it might be able to tap the canal for a new water supply. This hope was soon abandoned.

» Farmers weren't the only ones suffering from canal consternation. Developer Fritz Grupe worried that the canal would cut off boating access to the Delta and seriously harm development of Lincoln Village West.

» Legislation authorizing the canal finally pushed forward under then- and now-Gov. Jerry Brown in 1980. Hoping Brown would veto the bill, Stockton city leaders declared June 30, 1980, as "Canal Awareness Day" and buses were chartered to drive protesters to Sacramento.

» Activists collected 14,000 signatures on a petition and attempted to present it to Brown. When he refused to meet them, Rogene Reynolds staged a sit-in outside the governor's office. She was finally carried, chair and all, out of the lobby but didn't leave the Capitol until about 2:15 the next morning.

» The canal fight was so bitter that the same day the bill went to the governor's desk, a committee formed to consider splitting the state in two at a point south of Bakersfield.

» In 1982, the canal finally lost in a public referendum by a 2-to-1 ratio. It was a case of unlikely bedfellows; canal opponents feared a water grab, and they were funded by San Joaquin Valley farmers who worried they wouldn't get enough water from the project.